Missouri professor Melissa Click seen cursing at cop in new video

The University of Missouri assistant professor who was suspended from her teaching job for a November confrontation with a student journalist is the subject of a new video released by The Columbia Police Department that shows her cursing at a cop.
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This Nov. 9, 2015, frame grab provided by Mark Schierbecker shows Melissa Click, right, an assistant professor in the University of Missouri's communications, during a run-in with student journalists at a campus protest that followed the resignations of the university system's president and the Columbia campus' chancellor in Columbia, Mo.(Photo: Mark Schierbecker, AP)

The University of Missouri assistant professor who attracted nationwide attention and faced suspension from her teaching job for a November confrontation with a student journalist is in more hot water.

The Columbia Police Department released video from an October protest on campus in which assistant professor Melissa Click can be seen cursing at a cop who is trying to clear a roadway on campus after Click and a group of student demonstrators locked arms to block a road during the university's homecoming parade in October.

In the police video footage, first published by the Columbia Missourian, Click can be seen screaming profanities at an officer who placed an arm on her as he told her to get back on the sidewalk. Less than a month later, the assistant communication professor was captured on video calling for "some muscle" to help her eject a student journalist at a protest site on the university's quad.

Click is in the midst of applying for tenure at the university. Hank Foley, the university's interim chancellor, previously resisted calls for her dismissal, saying her future with the university should play out through the tenure process. But after the release of the police video footage, Foley in a statement on Sunday said "he will address these new revelations with the Board of Curators as they work to complete their own review of the matter.”

“Her conduct and behavior are appalling, and I am not only disappointed, I am angry, that a member of our faculty acted this way," Foley added. "Her actions caught on camera last October, are just another example of a pattern of misconduct by Dr. Click — most notably, her assault on one of our students while seeking ‘muscle’ during a highly volatile situation on Carnahan Quadrangle in November."

The demonstrations were among several that African-American students on campus organized last fall to express their anger over the university administrators' response to a series of racially charged incidents on campus.

Click, who says she was on the scene to view the parade, defends her actions that day.

"I'm sorry for the language I used, but I'm also sorry I felt I needed to put myself between the students and the officers to keep the students safe," Click told USA TODAY. "I took a stand because the crowd was hostile (to the student protesters). The police reaction was out of line. My reaction to being pushed was not uncommon."

She says the incident "shows my purpose was to protect the students."

The video of Click's confrontation with the student journalist went viral and led to Click being suspended with pay. She agreed to perform 20 hours of community service to avoid a misdemeanor assault charge. State GOP lawmakers, who are angry that the university hasn't fired Click, have also threatened to freeze funding at current levels because of the university's handling of the situation.

Click has said she was an ally of the activist group Concerned Student 1950, which organized weeks of protests on campus last fall. Those protests culminated with the resignations of the University of Missouri system president and the chancellor of the university's Columbia campus.

Colleagues of Click released a letter in January in which they expressed support for the assistant professor. The letter, which was signed by more than 100 university faculty members, notes that Click expressed remorse for her actions after the incident at the university quad. They said her actions "constitute at most a regrettable mistake."